If anyone has financed a boat within the last 10 years, and cares to share their story and answer some questions privately, please PM me. This could be live-aboard financing or 'recreational' financing, or 'recreational' financing that turned in to live-aboard.

Not much feedback for this one I guess. I hate to ask finance questions in this forum because I always get so much 'financial' advice that I'm not looking for. I have very personal reasons why I'm trying to finance, and a unique financial situation currently (property rich, cash poor). The finance industry is so screwed up because of Dodd-Frank. But here are my questions, for those that actually have done a loan recently:

1. What valuation was used? Essex seems to use NADA only, which is way low. NADA says $145k, where the survey says $270k.

2. Essex seems to be the only one doing live-aboard (mostly due to Dodd-Frank from what I understand). Know of any others?

3. If we do a 'recreational' loan and keep a land-based address, is that sufficient to define not-live-aboard? I don't know of any bank going out of their way to prove you are living aboard. I'm not sure they really care, they just don't have to comply with some of the Dodd-Frank rules if not a liveaboard.

Yeah, I've gotten that in the past. That's the problem, advice without understanding my entire financial portfolio is pointless. For example, who said it was home equity? I actually just sold my house. I have cash-flowing properties that I own. The cash flow from my tenants more than pays for the loan payment, AND they are still paying down my mortgages. When I sell off and cast off in 5 years, I will have more than enough cash. Just not enough to get started now, get a boat and practice up. Again, very personal, and somewhat irrelevant to how to get a loan.

What I typically find on this forum is folks that have sold off and had enough to pay cash, so it is rare that folks get loans for depreciating assets, but again, I am in a unique situation.

I financed mine through USAA, in truth I don't think they cared what the money was used for although they did put a lien on the boat.
I forget the term, it was sort of irrelevant as I paid it off in less than a year I think, probably five years.
I forget the interest rate, just know it was competitive. Loan amazed me as it was all done over the Internet no hassle, no problem, was too easy.
I don't think they wanted a copy of the survey, it was a sort of what's it for? OK how much? Your approved over the phone in a few minutes, sort of scary as it was too easy.

I did it as I didn't want to be "cash poor" at the time, was going to buy dinghies and lots of electronics etc. and wanted cash on hand, and I'm uncomfortable to take my cash reserves below a certain point, seems to be inviting disaster.
I believe if what I think is called your debt ratio is low enough, etc., borrowing money is easy.
Live aboard was never asked or talked about, since then I now know enough that I will never live aboard, I do however plan on beginning extended cruising in a little less than a yr.

If anyone has financed a boat within the last 10 years, and cares to share their story and answer some questions privately, please PM me. This could be live-aboard financing or 'recreational' financing, or 'recreational' financing that turned in to live-aboard.

Thanks in advance,
- Ray
~ Following Cs ~

If the boat is located outside the US and many times the state where you live, you can forget about financing. There are banking parameters which don't allow it.

I've financed 2 boats in the past 10 years. In both cases my initial loan was 80% of the surveyed value of the boat. One loan was with Essex and one with Suntrust. In both cases they required pretty though financial info to qualify (about the same as for when buying a house).

__________________
jobless, houseless, clueless, living on a boat and cruising around somewhere

I don't believe I weighed in one way or the other regarding financing, secured vs unsecured loans, or means of securing loans.

These threads come up from time to time on this and other forums and the topic is about as popular and heated as anchors and mono vs. multi hull. There will simply be a number of folks out there dead set against financing a boat.

Many people will say that you should never, ever finance a depreciating asset. Especially one that is, in essence, a luxury.

Replace the "never, ever" with "usually not" and I might agree. There are specific circumstances where it makes perfect sense. Of course, most of the people who finance boats do NOT fall into one of those "specific circumstances." They just want to own something they can't afford.

(Not saying that is the case with the OP. I have no idea what his specific circumstances might be.)

I think it's a Cruisers Forum phenomenon, reason I think is simple, it's tough to cruise with a boat payment, boat payment usually means years more working, and not cruising.
So I believe the general opinion is cruise in a boat you can afford to pay cash for, even if it means a little older or smaller or less luxurious than what you would really like.

I've financed 2 boats in the past 10 years. In both cases my initial loan was 80% of the surveyed value of the boat. One loan was with Essex and one with Suntrust. In both cases they required pretty though financial info to qualify (about the same as for when buying a house).

Same here when I bought my boat. I had also been told that if the bank knew that I was going to liveaboard, that they'd likely not give me financing. At the time, I was not going to liveaboard so that wasn't a problem.

The harder part, frankly, was getting insurance. For some reason, this was harder to line up and made me quite nervous for a bit, but after I'd had a couple of years of successful skippering (despite some close crossings when racing), it was easier to get quotes when I went looking for something more competitive.